In recent years, many museums and universities have begun to address past colonial injustices by critically examining their collections of human remains, often leading to their restitution to their assumed countries of origins. Such efforts are usually framed as acts of recognition, reconciliation, and repair. However, the diverse difficulties and frictions that accompany restitutions often escape public attention. This post introduces some of such difficulties that need to be taken into account to understand the complexity of restitution processes.
Author: Jonatan Kurzwelly
Jonatan Kurzwelly is a Senior Researcher at PRIF. His research and writing explore different aspects of social and personal identities, nationalism, essentialism, racialisation, radicalisation and extremism. He is the Principal Investigator of the Constructive Advanced Thinking group which has co-authored this blogpost. He also leads a research project on Contradictions in De-radicalisation Processes, funded by the German Research Foundation.
